Bluegrass music twangs across Governor's Mansion lawn

The notes of "Bile That Cabbage Down" twanged across the Governor's Mansion lawn Friday evening as a few hundred people enjoyed an old-fashioned "box social" to benefit Meals on Wheels.

Volunteers at the sponsoring Carson City Senior Center had spent much of the day in the center's kitchen, assembling more than 200 box lunches of pasta salad, ham and chicken sandwiches and fruit cups for the event, which helps pay for meals delivered daily to shut-ins.

Eleven musicians from the Northern Nevada Bluegrass Association donated their talents to provide entertainment for the social.

The audience spread out across the mansion's back yard on blankets and lawn chairs to enjoy "tunes like "Grandma's Feather Bed" and "Keep on the Sunny Side of Life" as the sun slipped behind the Sierras.

"This band is so good, it has a two-banjo handicap," banjo picker Tom Baker, emceeing for the group, bragged between numbers.

Besides the box lunches, volunteers had baked a variety of goodies the sold for dessert - apple, peach, cherry and pecan pies and chocolate cake, cheesecake, spike cake and chocolate cheesecake.